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A (Bitter)Sweet Pie for Pie Friday

I planned on posting this yesterday (in hindsight, today is probably better as it is Pie Friday, which I haven’t done in a while), but I found myself watching Veronica Mars all day and night until I lost power. Literally. There was a power surge that knocked out the power in our entire house at around 10:30 last night, and being home alone I didn’t quite have the nerve to go out to the meter box and have a look, so I went to bed instead (I know, MUCH safer right?!?). Why the whole day of Veronica Mars? I can hear you thinking…

(I was going to use this photo, but I thought I would get in trouble for it.. )

Well, yesterday morning I drove Jeff to the airport for his flight to Canada… He is heading back home for 3 weeks to visit his family and friends and then stopping in Korea for a week on the way back to see his sister… right when I am on university holidays and have nothing to do! I managed to hold it together at the airport for the most part, but once I got home it became clear that I needed something to keep my mind off the fact that he is far, far away and will be for the next month… which is where my beloved Veronica Mars stepped in with her witty, mysterious world that can suck me in for hours and make me forget about everything…

In the interests of keeping this blog as food related as I possible can, I decided to post about a recipe that I made at the persuasion of Jeff who missed pumpkin pie from back home… I planned on making mini pumpkin pies as part of my Halloween spread, but ran out of time to cook them on the day (I had already made the pastry and the filling but didn’t have time to cut out little rounds of pastry and actually fill them and put them in the oven)… so the next day I made a normal sized pie instead, and found out there was enough filling and pastry to make 2 pies… bonus… I sent Jeff home with the extra pastry and filling so he could make himself a pie, and he even took photos of his since I forgot to get photos of mine…

When searching for a recipe, I knew I wanted one that called for fresh pumpkin because I have never seen canned pumpkin over here… I stumbled accross this one on the Family Fun website, but used a shortcrust recipe I originally got from the November 2005 issue of Notebook magazine, adding a little spice into it…

Having never tried pumpkin pie before, I must say I was expecting it to be a lot sweeter… possibly because it is an American thing and I usually associate their sweets with A LOT OF SUGAR (thanks to the Daring Bakers!)… however, Jeff said it was spot on… I did like the spices in it and after several slices to make up my mind I decided I liked it!

Pumpkin PieMakes 2 Pies each serving 6-8

Process 1 2/3C plain flour, 80g sifted icing sugar, 1tsp ground cinnamon, 1 tsp ground allspice, 125g finely chopped, chilled unsalted butter & a pinch of salt in a food processor until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Mix 2 egg yolks with 1Tbsp chilled water and add to flour mixture with motor running. Process until mixture begins to form large clumps, stop the machine before it forms a ball. Turn pastry out onto lightly floured work surface and knead gently until it comes together. Form a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 180C and spray a couple of baking trays with olive oil spray. Peel, deseed & cube 600g pumpkin and roast for 30-40 minutes or until soft. Puree in a food processor until smooth.

Preheat oven to 220C and spray a pie dish with olive oil spray. Using half of the pastry, roll out to cover the base of the pie dish. Fill with pastry weights or rice and blind bake for 5-10 minutes.